Egypt & Agean Pics and info - Star Princess May 18

[Zukini]

Embraced, thanks so much for posting those photos and your review of your excursion in Egypt. It looked like you had an amazing experience! I love that photo of you and your spouse standing on the Pyramid! I didn't know you could do that!

 

Dog, although I should be jealous, thanks for posting those photos as well! I'm really happy you had such a good time and that things worked out well with the tour agency...I love that view from your room! That must have been amazing!

[caribill]

As soon as we walked off they scanned our bags in the Alexandria port building and didn't even look at our passports which I thought was funny.

 

 

There was an Egyptian official checking the passports onboard a few feet before the machine you signed out with your cruise card.

 

Checking meant he just glanced at what you were carrying to see if there was a visa stamped in it. Most people did not realize that their passport, open and in their hands, was being "checked."

 

When we went by, he was on his cell phone and it was only half a glance.

[CruisJack]

Thanks for the review, I am enjoying your descriptions and photos. Zukini, how do you bookmark a thread? Do you have to make a comment to follow a thread? Thanks

 

Flcruiser3, this is the method I use to save my place whenever

reading multi page reviews.

Assume on Day One, I've read pages 1 and 2,

I click on the Add tab in the toolbar and a dropdown appears

for 'to Favorites' and 3 others. I select 'to Email' and a

Email message form appears with a link to the 'Egypt' page 2

in the message area and also in the Send To box.

I Email this to myself.

On Day Two, I open this email and click on the link. I scroll

down to the last message I had read on Day One and continue

reading.

Assume I have read pages 3 and 4. I email Page 4 to myself

and will be able to begin on Day Three where I left off on

the pevious day.

It's simple and easy. It works for me.

Try it.

:rolleyes:

[Embracedbylife]

Caribill, that's funny they likely did look at it and I didn't realize! :) Will continue my adventure story tomorrow! next stop - Khios!

[cherylandtk]

Caribill,

I could swear you started a nice thread about your overnight in Egypt earlier today, complete with pictures. I got as far as the Sound and Light show and had to leave. Now that I am back I can't seem to locate your thread.:confused: Do you know where it is? Thanks.

[caribill]

Caribill,

I could swear you started a nice thread about your overnight in Egypt earlier today, complete with pictures. I got as far as the Sound and Light show and had to leave. Now that I am back I can't seem to locate your thread.:confused: Do you know where it is? Thanks.

 

No. Actually, I started it twice and it disappeared both times. 2nd time, I was 90% complete when it went poof. I may try a third time appending it to another thread.

[Zukini]

No. Actually, I started it twice and it disappeared both times. 2nd time, I was 90% complete when it went poof. I may try a third time appending it to another thread.

 

How strange. I had posted sections of my photo review under the appropriate ports-of-call threads...after a day or two, they all disappeared as well. I wonder if they're having trouble with the boards, or if they're intentionally deleting these threads for some reason?:confused:

[caribill]

How strange. I had posted sections of my photo review under the appropriate ports-of-call threads...after a day or two, they all disappeared as well. I wonder if they're having trouble with the boards, or if they're intentionally deleting these threads for some reason?:confused:

 

You can find mine starting at post #101 on http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=29465590&posted=1#post29465590

[Zukini]

You can find mine starting at post #101 on http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=29465590&posted=1#post29465590

 

 

Thanks a million!! Love the photos!!

[dog]

Caribill, that's funny they likely did look at it and I didn't realize! :) Will continue my adventure story tomorrow! next stop - Khios!

 

i had our passports opened to last page they stamped & they just waved us through with barely a glace. so glad it was that easy.

 

looking forward to rest of your review lisa. sounds like you had a wonderful trip too.

[Embracedbylife]

Monday, May 23 - At Sea.

This was the day that I found out that room service cheeseburgers are by far superior to those at the burger stand by the pool. Oh wow, it was sooo good. Maybe I was really hungry but it was delicious, and I ordered it once more before disembarking through room service and it was just as good the second time. Sounds from my posts like all I ate were cheeseburgers but that isnt' true...I had maybe 5 the whole trip, so that wasn't bad I think! :) To talk more about the food (since that's what I did a lot on sea days - indulge) the food is really great on the ship. At the International Cafe on deck 5 I enjoyed the chicken waldorf salad with nuts, but found the chicken to be in large pieces this time rather than pulled pieces. My last cruise it was just as good, maybe better. I think maybe I prefered it before a bit but this was still very tasty. My favorite thing at the International cafe was the grilled veggies! Of course they have tons of sweets but I passed on them for the veggies. I really enjoyed the fruit at horizon court and the breakfast started out very good at horizon court but the round hashbrowns by the end were all fat. I think there was a problem with their fryer. So the last 3 days I missed out on the wonderful potatoe hashbrowns since they were pieces of lard, but anyway, I ate plenty!! \

 

I also walked a lot to make up for all I ate. took the stairs constantly and on this sea day we walked around deck 7 at least 4-5 times and it was really nice! My favorite drink of the day was the raspberry mojito!! :) YUM!!

 

Tuesday, May 24 - Khios

 

We arrived at Khios at 7am and hubby and I slept in a bit since we had a tour booked for 12pm to the Nea Moni Monastery & Avgonima. We had breakfast by 9am and left the ship by about 10:00am via tender. The tender was fast to the shore and this was a nice port. We walked around the small shops for about an hour then found a really neat old town fortress area and walked within the walls around numerous homes and old churches. By 11:15 we stopped for some Gyros at the main square before heading to the tender area to catch our tour. We boarded a bus with 34 others and a very loud and anoying tour guide. I feel bad for saying this but she really was the worst guide we ever had. Her accent was really anoying and she didn't stop talking the entire time. Full of information, yes, but full of facts, no. She kept saying "do you understand" and she'd say something then say, wait no, not that, this...oh boy what a nightmare.

 

the upside was that we got off the bus 3 times to see beautiful little old towns and the monastery. We stayed clear of the guide and walked around on our own. The nicest thing is that this tour takes you all the way up the mountain and there are beautiful view from the bus. I just wished the guide stopped talking long enough to let us bask in it and relax to enjoy it. I did give my comments to the shore excursion desk! Apparenly this guide was doing another tour in Athens a few days later with our ship but she said it was a 9 hour tour and our tour for Athens was only 5 hours so I was relieved to know it was the first and last time! the only snag in our vacation, and it wasn't so bad. We still saw lots of wonderful things!!

 

Back on the ship by 3:30pm and time for some relaxation. I think after that tour I had a nice drink and a wonderful meal and called it a day!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Embracedbylife]

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - Istanbul Turkey:

 

The ship docked right on time for 8am. It was a pretty sail in and we were up by 6:30am to watch from our balcony. Breakfast arrived in our room by 7am and we were downstairs ready to meet our tour group by about 8am or so. We booked the princess tour of St. Sophia the Blue Mosque and time on our own shopping. It was a great tour although next time we might be more adventurous and book a private guide! The best thing about the princess tour is that we were able to stay longer in the shopping area and take the princess shuttle back on our own rather than the tour bus that brought us there. The shuttle ran every half hour so it gave us more time to enjoy the grand bazaar and to grab some food to try!

 

The only negative thing to say about the tour is that we found the rug demonstration at the end to be a boring sales pitch. We gracefully got up and left half way through so as to have more time to enjoy the shopping. We followed several others from our tour that left ahead of us. If you are looking to buy a rug though it's ok.

 

I'm glad we did the princess tour this time as we felt comfortable knowing where we were going and that we'd be back in time to catch the ship! :) What a fun day. Wish we had an overnight here!!! Can't wait to go back!

[Embracedbylife]